Google Said to Partner Huawei for 7-Inch Pixel Tablet With October Launch

Google is expected to do away with its Nexus lineup altogether, and introduce new Google-branded hardware in the premium segment. So far, the company’s platform lead devices are expected to feature the Pixel brand. The Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are expected to be unveiled on October 4, and now new intel on the two smartphones has cropped up online. The Google Pixel XL was purportedly also run through Geekbench, revealing some key specification details. However, alongside these two smartphones, Google is also expected to launch a new 7-inch Pixel tablet as well. Google will unveil all of these products in October, and also release the first major maintenance release of Android Nougat 7.1 alongside. The build number of this first maintenance release has also been leaked, and is expected to be NDE63B.

Beginning with the tablet, Evan Blass has tipped that Google has asked Huawei to build a 7-inch tablet. Blass claims that the tablet will sport 4GB of RAM, and will be released before the end of the year. Blass does not use the word Nexus in his tweet hinting that Google could be unveiling another Pixel-branded device to complement last year’s 10-inch Pixel C. And while Blass hasn’t provided a tangible timeline for release, it will most likely launch it alongside the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones on October 4.

Coming to the smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL devices were leaked recently, and new information about the camera on board has now surfaced. Both the smartphones are expected to sport the same Sony cameras at the front and back. According to tipster LlabTooFeR, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones will have a 12-megapixel camera with Sony IMX378 sensors at the back, and an 8-megapixel front camera with Sony IMX179 sensors on the front. While the sensors are a slight upgrade from the predecessors, what these sensors might exactly entail remains unknown at the moment.

The Google Pixel XL was also on Geekbench, and the listing reveals that the smartphone will be powered by the Snapdragon 820 SoC paired with a 4GB of RAM. It is also seen running on Android NMR1, which could possibly be the first maintenance release of Android Nougat. LlabTooFeR has also revealed that the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones will be running on Android Nougat 7.1. He revealed that the build number for Andorid Nougat 7.1 is NDE63B.

While the worldwide release is pegged for October, Gadgets 360 has learnt that Google may release the new smartphones “in a handful of countries including India” in September. Previous leaks suggest that the Pixel smartphone sports a 5-inch display and will be priced at $449 (roughly Rs. 30,000). The Pixel XL is the larger of the two with a 5.5-inch display, and is expected to be priced at $599 (roughly Rs. 40,100).